Check Kansan.com later today for full coverage of this game.

KANSAS 69, NORTH DAKOTA STATE 62

3:52 left in the second half

This is it. Less than four minutes left in this game and North Dakota State is still within striking distance.

Photo Gallery

NCAA First Round, North Dakota State Bison

A photo gallery of the Jayhawks 84-74 first round win against the North Dakota State Bison at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn.

Kansas hasn't played its best game, but the two beasts are dominating, it's just a lack of a supporting cast that's kept them from pulling away.

Nevertheless, those two alone should be enough down the stretch to hold of Ben Woodside and his upset bid.

KANSAS 62, NORTH DAKOTA STATE 57

7:57 left in the second half

Each team's stars are showing brightly today, and right now North Dakota State's role players are actually out-doing Kansas.

Woodside has 27 points while Kansas' two-headed monster of Collins and Cole Aldrich have combined for 39. Besides that, though, Tyshawn Taylor has just two second-half points (eight total) while NDSU's Michael Tveidt and Brett Winkelman have combined for 21 points.

Kansas just needs a guy like Brady Morningstar or Taylor to step up and give it a little extra breathing room.

KANSAS 56, NORTH DAKOTA STATE 52

11:48 left in the second half

Ben Woodside is a star.

Whether the Bison win or not, Woodside has taken his all-out game to the big stage and it looks great.

The Albert Lea, Minn., native has 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting. He's matching Sherron Collins shot-for-shot and Woodside's play and demeanor are keeping his team in the game.

What Davidson's Stephen Curry was to last year's tournament, Woodside could be this season. Of course, he's got to get past Kansas first.

KANSAS 49, NORTH DAKOTA STATE 44

15:21 left in the second half

Kansas was poised to put this game away, but North Dakota State isn't done yet.

Woodside bumped his total to 18 while Brett Winkelman and Michael Tveidt have also produced more to keep this game close.

However, the Bison have no inside presence and no answer for Cole Aldrich, who now has 12 points and six rebounds.

KANSAS 43, NORTH DAKOTA STATE 34

Halftime

The Bison average seven made three-pointers per game. Today they have that at halftime.

Ben Woodside and Sherron Collins are going toe-to-toe with buckets, but the difference at halftime is Kansas' Cole Aldrich and Tyshawn Taylor have stepped up their games.

Twice out of timeouts Kansas went to Aldrich inside for dunks, while Taylor has created his own shot by driving into the paint and finishing.

North Dakota State needs a giant helping of threes to stay in this game or possibly win it, and it's the perfect team to pull that off.

KANSAS 34, NORTH DAKOTA STATE 29

3:48 left in the first half

This is becoming quite a duel.

The game is good, but the game inside the game is better. Sherron Collins and Ben Woodside are going shot-for-shot up-and-down the court. It's highly entertaining and the winner of this little duel will likely guide his team to victory, also.

Collins has 15 points and three assists while Woodside has 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting.

KANSAS 27, NORTH DAKOTA STATE 25

6:47 left in the first half

While the Bison continue to fire away beyond the arc, Sherron Collins continues to carry Kansas.

Right now Collins has 15 points — which is more than half the team points — on 7-of-10 shooting. Cole Aldrich hasn't been looked at within the offense too much yet and nobody else is making plays. Collins has the ability to carry Kansas to victory but that wouldn't be too good energy-wise with another game coming on Sunday should they win.

KANSAS 21, NORTH DAKOTA STATE 19

10:53 left in the first half

The scouting report for North Dakota State should say one thing: guard the perimeter.

It doesn't matter if Ben Woodside goes for 30 points, as long as the rest of the team isn't hitting threes. I know Kansas is aware of NDSU's shooting prowess, which is why it's hard to believe it's giving the Bison so many good looks at the basket from distance.

The Bison are 4-of-6 behind the three-point line and they've kept the crowd involved by not falling behind early. Neither of those is a good sign for Kansas.

KANSAS 12, NORTH DAKOTA STATE 11

14:47 left in the first half

North Dakota State has already taken advantage of its favorable crowd.

Not long after Lucas Moormann dove under press row to save the ball, Ben Winkelman chased a loose ball down the court. Despite trailing the ball by a good seven feet as it went out of bounds, Winkelman dove after it.

Now he's not dumb enough to think he could catch it, but the idea was to get the crowd pumped for his hustle.

It worked perfectly as the gold-and-green clad fans erupted for his effort. They blew up even more when the Bison hit their third three-pointer.

So far, coach Saul Phillips' team is playing as advertised. North Dakota State is 3-for-3 behind the three-point line.

11:30 a.m.

Prediction time.

I was ready for the upset. Three-point shooting teams are incredibly dangerous in March. Especially when they have a do-it-all point guard like Ben Woodside.

However, there wasn't a single upset during the first round on Thursday (don't even try to tell me you didn't seek Western Kentucky coming). There's always a theme to the tourney, and this year it looks like that theme is going to be chalk. As in, no surprises — at least until the round of 16.

With that in mind, don't be surprised if NDSU makes a couple serious runs at this game in the second half. I just don't think it's going to be enough. Put me down for Kansas to win 82-70.

11:20 a.m.

Another joke from Thursday's press conference doesn't look so funny now.

A Fargo reporter asked Kansas coach Bill Self if his team was ready for a hostile crowd. Sure, Fargo is much closer and North Dakota State sold out its tickets in 15 minutes. But it's not going to be that bad, right?

Well, as a journalism major I'm not too good with math or percentages. But by my estimation NDSU fans out-number KU fans by at least 70-30 percent. Normally I wouldn't say that counts for much, but streaky-teams live on emotion.

North Dakota State hits 41.2 percent of its three-pointers. If the Bison hit a couple in a row then that crowd could help get them on a roll and turn that into four or five in a row. Maybe Kansas will blow them out and it won't make a difference, but I wouldn't bet on that.

11:05 a.m.

The only highlight during yesterday's press conference occurred when a reporter asked Cole Aldrich, a Bloomington, Minn., native, if any of his teammates knew where Fargo was located.

Fargo, of course, is the capital of North Dakota and the home of North Dakota State and its Bison. Aldrich laughed, slapped on his good-ole-boy smile, made a joke that no one laughed at and then moved on to the next question.

The funny thing, though, is that people often make the mistake of thinking Fargo is in Minnesota. I've determined that this confusion stems from the Cohen Brothers' movie Fargo.

In that movie, the heroine is a police officer in Fargo but ventures into Minnesota for a brief time. However, I believe the confusion comes from the accents.

As demonstrated in this video, northerners have a distinctively-funny accent. It may be a stereotype, but most stereotypes are bred from truth. As someone who has interviewed Cole Aldrich several times, I can tell you he does have a northern accent that gets through from time-to-time.

10:50 a.m.

By this time in the season, all of you should have a pretty good idea who this Jayhawk team is. They're young but ultra-talented, and if Sherron Collins is hitting shots they're nearly unbeatable.

That's old news, but what about the Bison.

North Dakota State qualified for its first NCAA tournament in the first year it was eligible. North Dakota State won the Summit League regular season and tournament championships to move into the field of 65. Five years ago, NDSU began its transition to Division I basketball. Players like Ben Woodside and Brett Winkelman took redshirts as freshmen just so they could be around for a chance at the tourney.

Woodside paid his coach back for that move with this shot against Oakland to win the Summit League tournament title.

Woodside also scored 60 points in an epic 112-111 triple-overtime loss to Stephen F. Austin. Including Woodside, North Dakota State has four fifth-year seniors.

That group has been waiting five years for this day and this opportunity.

That ultimate underdog story means that every non-KU fan in the country will be rooting for the Bison.

10:40 a.m.

Watching the Twins play baseball in the Hubert H. Humphrey MetroDome was an absolute embarrassment. That garbage bag-like tarp around the outfield was unsightly and David Ortiz once hit an inside-the park homerun here because the outfielders lost the ball in the lights. Basically it was a joke.

Basketball, on the other hand, looks like it should work just fine.

I was skeptical about the setup designed to seat 32,000 in an arena like this, but it's actually pretty nice and not all of the fan's seats are 100 feet back. With any luck, this will actually feel like a college basketball game.

For full NCAA tournament coverage, including free live streaming of games, please go to ncaa.com.